Competition

Wintercup 2017 witnessed the birth of Belgian Champions

By Roy NG

NOV 26, 2017

Team Phoenix was crowned Belgian Senior Champion. The competition also counted as the national championship. / Credits: Roy Ng Photography

The traditional WinterCup competition took place this weekend in Belgium. No less than 30 teams from eight different countries took part in the competition. In the junior division, the victory went to the Swedes of Team Spirit, a Belgian team, Team Phoenix, won the senior competition.

The six Junior ISU teams showed promising achievements.

Team Spirit of Sweden (total score: 109.88) furthered their lead from Short Program with intricate step sequence and good unison of arm-leg position in Free Program. They beat the silver medallist Swiss team Cool Dreams (total score: 95.43), who delivered very pleasant Short and Free programs, by a wide margin.

The bronze medallist Jean d’Arc (total score: 95.35) from France almost took Swiss’ team place, but the falls during Free Program proved too costly. Nevertheless, their Free Program outfit was mesmerizingly impressive and earned much admiration from the spectators.

Icicles (total score: 92.83) from Great Britain executed well step sequence and pivotal blocks. The whole arena went ecstatic as spectators cheered the team on enthusiastically.

In the Senior ISU category, Team Phoenix of Belgium made into ISU category this season and showed remarkable improvement from last time. Their choreography matched rhymic music well. Also, they performed Group Lifts significantly smoother than competitors. They gained the Belgian Champion title as well as the gold medal in this category by scoring 99.31 points in total.

Team Amber of Latvia beat Team Viola of Great Britain by a slight margin (total: 83.99 vs 83.55 points). Team Amber remained cheerful throughout skating to Free Program music “Candyman” and “Let’s Twist Again” while Team Viola expressed well the emotion of the music “Let It Be” and “All You Need Is Love”.

Team Illumination (total: 77.40 points) struggled a bit in group lifts but otherwise delivered interesting programs.

British Team Shadows was the only competitor in the Advanced Novice category. Skating to the music from the Disney movie "Cinderella", they displayed smooth flow throughout the skate with their line element earned a Level 4. They earned 41.32 points.

The end of Wintercup 2017 concluded with award ceremony when a flash mob was performed by everyone in the arena. It was definitely a highlight of the long day!

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